Simple dreams

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Seble Girma's musical career almost didn't get started. Girma's
father opposed her singing on the grounds that it was an unsuitable
career for a girl in Ethiopia (a view shared by the strictly
Christian community to which the Girma family belonged). In fact,
her father was certain his 12-year-old daughter had abandoned her
aspirations of becoming a performer - until he turned on the TV one
night and saw young Seble in full voice.

"I was just singing in a competition in school," says Girma,
who, at 23, is now the singer and lead dancer for the
Melbourne-based Ethiopian Circus Band, a five-piece group that
performs a blend of traditional and contemporary Ethiopian music
and dance at festivals and community events around Melbourne. "I
didn't know the media were there. And my dad was just at home
watching TV, and there I was!" she laughs. "The television
presenters were talking about me and they told everyone how to
contact me, and they didn't even ask me about it."

More surprised by his daughter's talent than angered by her
defiance, Girma senior quickly realised he would have little choice
but to allow her to pursue her chosen career, and so a star of the
local scene was born.

Girma spent much of the next two years touring Ethiopia as a
professional performer with local pop acts. But in 1996, and aged
just 14, she was noticed by the producers of Circus Ethiopia, a
touring children's circus established in 1991 to promote Ethiopian
culture abroad and to teach disadvantaged children circus arts.

Girma was offered a place in the circus's live band. She
initially refused, preferring the idea of staying close to her
family and fronting local groups. But after attending a few
rehearsals and having enormous fun performing with children her own
age, she decided to join.

"It wasn't hard for me because most of the circus were kids,"
she explains. "At that time we didn't even think about being away
from our family because it was really fun, free, you know?"

The circus toured Europe later that year and again in 1997, its
young acrobats, dancers and band garnering glowing reviews. As
Girma remembers, the act's leading performers were afforded
celebrity-like status on their trips home to Ethiopia between
tours. "I became really popular in my area. It was like the kids
wouldn't even come up to me and say hello. They were like, 'She
went to Europe and came back!' It was crazy," she laughs. "I was
famous, but I was just a little girl."

In 1998, the circus travelled to Australia. Again, critics
heralded the tour, but after the final show of the tour 15
performers - almost half the troupe - defected, applying for
refugee status in Australia. When I ask Girma about this, she
shifts in her seat, but remains silent. She later says it's not
something she wants talk about, adding that she still has "great
memories" of her time in the circus.

But according to an article that appeared in The Sydney
Morning Herald in 2002, the young performers had suffered
continued exploitation and abuse at the hands of circus
management.

The group, who had no relatives in Australia, travelled to
Melbourne and were taken in by Footscray's large Ethiopian
community, many of whom had fled their homeland in the early '90s
following the country's civil war. The younger members were placed
in the care of state child-welfare officers, while those over 16
were provided with emergency housing.

Girma, who stayed with an Ethiopian family in Yarraville and now
lives in Brunswick, remembers the time vividly. "We had a really,
really hard time for about two years. It's a different people, a
different culture, different food too," she says. "I had to learn
everything. I couldn't go to school to learn English, because if I
don't work I can't earn money, and if I can't earn money I can't
survive. I had no family to support me."

In 2000, the 15 performers were granted permanent residency on
humanitarian grounds. While one joined Circus Oz and others pursued
work and study, Girma and three former circus band mates - Abay
Abebe, Abiy Abebe (no relation to Abay) and Tiglu Mekuera - began
practising at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, combining
traditional instruments such as the kirar (Ethiopian harp) with
keyboard, saxophone and drums.

It was here they met Duncan Foster, the centre's then music
coordinator, who began jamming with them and soon joined as their
bass player and manager. And while working jobs and studying on the
side, the band began playing club dates and small community events,
their frenetic live show gaining them quite a following in the
western-suburbs African community.

They hope to expand their audience to the wider community, and
maybe even cut an album some time soon. But for now Girma's
aspirations are simple. "A singer," she says with a smile. "That's
what I want to be."

The Ethiopian Circus Band play the Port Fairy Folk
Festival, March 11-14. Tel: 5568 2227